The present invention relates to automotive vehicle racks and, more particularly, to a hitch carrier rack.
Hitch carrier racks for automotive vehicles are increasingly desirable. Such a rack has a coupler to be received in the receptacle of a receiver-type tow hitch which normally is used to receive a coupling arrangement for connection to a trailer to be towed. There are, for example, hitch rack bike carriers. A hitch bike carrier is a rack which suspends one or more bicycles at the rear of an automotive vehicle (or sometimes at the front of a large vehicle), with the bicycle support structure cantilevered upwardly from a hitch receiver on the vehicle.
It is desirable in such an arrangement that the rack be movable to allow access to a gate, door or other part of the vehicle. While various mechanisms have been provided in the past to allows the rack to be moved to such an inactive position, the problem with most is that the necessary pivot joints, etc., introduce play in the rack construction. It will be appreciated that because of the cantilever suspension of the bike or other article support structure, a minor lack of rigidity introduced by a joint can be magnified to be a major problem.